Return to FAQ CVS log

Up to [DVB] / DVB

more xine://dvb details

Some very frequently asked questions about linuxtv-dvb

1. The signal seems to die a few seconds after tuning.

	It's not a bug, it's a feature. Because the frontends have
	significant power requirements (and hence get very hot), they
	are powered down if they are unused (i.e. if the frontend device
	is closed). The dvb-core.o module paramter "dvb_shutdown_timeout"
	allow you to change the timeout (default 5 seconds). Setting the
	timeout to 0 disables the timeout feature.

2. How can I watch TV?

	The driver distribution includes some simple utilities which
	are mainly intended for testing and to demonstrate how the
	DVB API works.

	Depending on whether you have a DVB-S, DVB-C or DVB-T card, use
	apps/szap/szap, czap or tzap. You must supply a channel list
	in ~/.[sct]zap/channels.conf. If you are lucky you can just copy
	one of the supplied channel lists, or you can create a new one
	by running apps/scan/scan. If you run scan on an unknown network
	you might have to supply some start data in apps/scan/initial.h.

	If you have a card with a built-in hardware MPEG-decoder the
	drivers create a video4linux device (/dev/v4l/video0) which
	you can use to watch TV with any v4l application. xawtv is known
	to work. Note that you cannot change channels with xawtv, you
	have to zap using [sct]zap. If you want a nice application for
	TV watching and record/playback, have a look at VDR.

	If your card does not have a hardware MPEG decoder you need
	a software MPEG decoder. Mplayer or xine are known to work.
	Newsflash: MythTV also has DVB support now.
	Note: Only very recent versions of Mplayer and xine can decode.
	MPEG2 transport streams (TS) directly. Then, run
	'[sct]zap channelname -r' in one xterm, and keep it running,
	and start 'mplayer - < /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0' or 
	'xine stdin://mpeg2 < /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0' in a second xterm.
	That's all far from perfect, but it seems no one has written
	a nice DVB application which includes a builtin software MPEG
	decoder yet.

	Newsflash: Newest xine directly supports DVB. Just copy your
	channels.conf to ~/.xine and start 'xine dvb://', or select
	the DVB button in the xine GUI. Channel switching works using the
	numpad pgup/pgdown (NP9 / NP3) keys to scroll through the channel osd
	menu and pressing numpad-enter to switch to the selected channel.

	Note: Older versions of xine and mplayer understand MPEG program
	streams (PS) only, and can be used in conjunction with the
	ts2ps tool from the Metzler Brother's dvb-mpegtools package.

3. Which other DVB applications exist?

	http://www.cadsoft.de/people/kls/vdr/
		Klaus Schmidinger's Video Disk Recorder

	http://www.metzlerbros.org/dvb/
		Metzler Bros. DVB development; alternate drivers and
		DVB utilities, include dvb-mpegtools and tuxzap.

	http://www.linuxstb.org/
	http://sourceforge.net/projects/dvbtools/
		Dave Chapman's dvbtools package, including
		dvbstream and dvbtune

	http://www.linuxdvb.tv/
		Henning Holtschneider's site with many interesting
		links and docs

	http://www.dbox2.info/
		LinuxDVB on the dBox2

	http://www.tuxbox.org/
	http://cvs.tuxbox.org/
		the TuxBox CVS many interesting DVB applications and the dBox2
		DVB source

	http://sourceforge.net/projects/dvbsak/
		DVB Swiss Army Knife library and utilities

	http://www.nenie.org/misc/mpsys/
		MPSYS: a MPEG2 system library and tools

	http://mplayerhq.hu/
		mplayer

	http://xine.sourceforge.net/
	http://xinehq.de/
		xine

	http://www.mythtv.org/
		MythTV - analog TV PVR, but now with DVB support, too
		(with software MPEG decode)

eof